The Joy of Generosity

We're going to read from Philippians 4 this morning, and we'll see an explosion of joy from the Apostle Paul as He explains and reflects upon the generosity of the Philippian church in how they've served Him through a generous gift. We're going to read this morning from verse 10 of Philippians 4 through to the end in verse 23. Philippians 4:10. Paul writes, "I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length, you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity."

"Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am, to be content. I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Yet, it was kind of you to share my trouble."

"And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving except you only. Even in Thessalonica, you sent me help for my needs once and again. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit. I have received full payment and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God."

"And my God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father, be glory forever and ever. Amen. Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me greet you."

"All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit." This is the Word of the Lord. As we head into Christmas, we are going to think about and be challenged with practising generosity. In this passage in Scripture, we find Paul sending back His thanks for a gift that had been sent to Him by the Christians in the city of Philippi.

If you know the letter, you know that early in that letter, Paul tells us about a man by the name of Epaphroditus, who had been sent by the Philippian church to bring Him some financial or physical aid while Paul was sitting in prison. Right at the start of His letter in chapter 1, verse 5, Paul mentions their kindness to Him. And at that point, He thanks God for them and for their generosity in verses 3 and 5. But it's not up until we get to this end part of the letter that He formally discusses the gift of the Philippians in detail. Now, while this passage, if you read the letter from start to finish, might seem like an administrative sort of epilogue, Paul is overflowing with joy as He writes these words and that is the continuation of the theme of the letter.

The theme for the letter to the Philippians is one of joy. It's Paul's happiest letter, you could say. And we find that Paul in these final verses sums up himself to be someone who thinks of himself as the most prosperous man on earth because He has experienced such generosity by these Christians. Think about it, a man sitting in jail, not knowing what his future might look like, thinks of himself as the most prosperous man in the world because of the generosity of fellow Christians. What we see in these verses is Paul talking about Christian prosperity.

This prosperity is bound up by both, He says, the giving and the receiving of generosity. This prosperity of the Christian life is a combination of contentment found only in Christ and a deep, intentional, thankful response to Christ as a way of glorifying God through generosity. In other words, there might just be something called the prosperity gospel in Christianity. Let's have a look at what it means, however, for Christians to live in genuine prosperity. First point for this morning, Christian prosperity, which is found in the neglected blessing of both giving and receiving.

There's a significant number of people in our church here today who have come from other churches where they've been put off by a modern western church phenomenon called the prosperity gospel. The rise of this teaching, a modern-day heresy, is that if you have certain goals, hopes, and dreams for your life, and you combine that with a belief in Jesus, you will somehow receive the health, the wealth, and the happiness that you deeply desire. Now, churches have stood up against this form of teaching and yet, it is still a very popular teaching. There are many churches on the Gold Coast that teach this very thing. But while we should be very intentional to push back on this false teaching, another sinister sin can also lurk in our own reformed and evangelical churches.

While we might, on the one hand, denounce the prosperity gospel, we may, on the other, still love the idea of a self-generated prosperity. You see, sometimes it's easy to have a self-righteous indignation towards the idea of God being the genie in a bottle who will give us our three wishes. So we hate those that preach that sort of teaching. But if you were very honest, the reason we hate that sort of teaching might be that we secretly actually want what they're selling, but what our theology won't allow us to have. The truth is that while we may hate the sin of turning God into a vending machine, many of us are happy to jealously work towards a self-made prosperity.

And so while we shake our heads at our name-it-and-claim-it theology, we ourselves might actually be wanting that exact prosperity with a theology that tells us that we will do it on our own. It's the same goal with a different method. What we find here in Philippians is something close to what true Christian prosperity looks like. And it is grounded in exactly that theme that Paul repeatedly mentions throughout His entire letter, and that is joy. Christian prosperity is grounded in joy.

Look at the start of our passage where Paul begins again with that word joy. He says, "I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last you have revived your concern for me." The Philippians' efforts to provide assistance for Paul while in prison has caused Paul to be filled with joy. Why? Well, it's a joy that is drawn from both the blessing of the Philippians giving and Paul's chance to receive.

Have a look. Firstly, see how Paul is moved by the spiritual priorities of the Philippians who want to support the work of the gospel. He says, "It was kind of you to share in my trouble," over those years of ministry, and He writes in verse 14. Philippian Christians put their money where their mouth was and they sent Him financial and practical aid as Paul needed it. Finally, here, He's received another great gift from them while He is in prison.

And so, very clearly, Paul's first response in joy is because of the Philippians' generosity in giving. But then secondly, Paul rejoices in the fact that He is being made to receive their gift. Now, that's a funny way to put it. It sounds weird. Why is He happy about being made to receive a gift?

Well, commentators point out the peculiar structure of this passage as portraying a type of internal dialogue that Paul is having. At its worst, the structure could suggest that Paul is wrestling with the idea of receiving financial aid, that Paul has an internal sort of struggle. Can I allow myself to receive this aid? At its best, it simply shows Paul showing two sides of His gospel ministry approach, that at times He was able to work independently and didn't need to be a burden to the churches, and then at other times, He relied on their help. We see this peculiar to-ing and fro-ing dialogical sort of structure, beginning in verse 10 where Paul says He thanks God for their gift, but then in verses 11 and 12 to 13, Paul says, "I've learned how to go without gifts and to be content."

Then in verses 14 to 16, He says, "But it was kind of you to share in my hardship." And then in verse 17, He says, "But not that I desire these gifts, rather I desire that God honours you because of your generosity." So there is this rhetorical to-ing and fro-ing that is happening. Question is, why is Paul going backwards and forwards like this? Well, I think it could be that on the one hand, Paul wanted His mission to be without a hindrance to the church.

He wanted to work hard to not be a burden on the church as He spread the gospel. Paul, in other words, wanted the gospel of grace to be free, disentangled from financial constraints. But now, He is sitting in jail and it's not the jails that we understand where the government will give you your three square meals and look after your basic needs. Now, in those days, sitting in jail often meant that people had to help you.

People had to bring you food while they just held you in a jail cell. And so, Paul is coming to terms with this situation and He realises that He does need outside help. And so there is this internal dialogue going on. This gift has been given to you, Paul, He says to Himself, by God and by His church. If God is behind this, Paul, it means God has decided that you could do with some help.

Look around you. Your situation is tough. So receive this gift with the same thanksgiving as other churches have received your help in the past. I think what we're seeing here is this other side of the Christian prosperity where there is a joy to be found in being good receivers of gifts as well as givers of gifts. In the Christian world, being generous is often talked about.

We looked at Jesus saying it in Matthew 6. We looked at Paul again commending the Corinthian Christians to be generous towards the Jerusalem Church. We talk about being generous a lot. We might see it as a proud Christian tradition to be generous, but a lot of us struggle with receiving. Why?

Because perhaps, we secretly take too much stock in our generosity. For people who value being generous, how do we feel about being recipients of other people's generosity? It'll be a great question to ask John and Taya Campus at morning tea. For two, three months, they've relied on a lot of help. How did they process that?

Especially at the start, receiving the generosity and the help of both their church family and especially their immediate family. Having a good theology of Christian prosperity means you hold in balance that you both give generously and receive wholeheartedly good gifts throughout your life. If you wrestle with an uncomfortable feeling of indebtedness, that is not a Christian feeling to have. If it hurts your ego to receive, you are thinking far too much about yourself and you are not thinking enough of what God is doing in and through those people around you that have been called to give. That's what we can take away from Paul's discussion here.

He fixes His eyes not on the gift, but on what God is doing through that gift. So that's the first point. True Christian prosperity can be found in the blessing of both giving and receiving gifts that God, we understand, has ultimately provided all along anyway. Secondly, Christian contentment is relying on Jesus as the source of our strength. Preacher and author, Haddon Robinson, tells a story of a pastor who was travelling through South Alabama in the US on a hot day.

He stopped at a watermelon stand, picked up a nice juicy-looking watermelon, and asked the owner how much one would cost. "That one is a dollar ten," he replied. The pastor dug in his pocket, found only a dollar note and said, "All I have is this dollar. I don't have any coins." "That's okay," the stand owner said, "I'll trust you for it."

"Well, that's really nice of you," the pastor responded and picking up the watermelon started to leave. "Hey, where are you going?" the man replied. "Well, I'm going to eat my watermelon," the pastor said. "But you forgot to give me the dollar," the man replied.

"You said you would trust me for it," the pastor called back. "Yeah, but I meant I would trust you for the 10 cents you would owe me." "Friend," the pastor replied, "you weren't going to trust me. You were willing to take a 10-cent gamble on my integrity." We can do similar things with our trust in God.

We're happy to take a 10-cent gamble while we have the dollar in our pocket. Happy to trust God when we feel secure about the escape plans that we can fund. Or in Paul's language here, to find ourselves in situations of plenty and abundance, but when it comes to the situation of hunger and need, we're not so sure anymore. Paul says that He's learned to be content in whatever situation He finds Himself in, whether it's years of plenty or years of need. And in verse 13, we find that famous verse that tells us the secret of His contentment.

He draws it from the power of Christ who strengthens Him. NBA basketballer, Steph Curry, has made this verse famous. I don't know if you follow the NBA, but he has a multi-million dollar contract with Under Armour, in which, on all his personalised shoes, or the line of personalised shoes, he embroiders the phrase, "I can do all things..." Philippians 4:13. But as noble as Steph Curry's reasons might be for displaying this verse for all to see and perhaps genuinely trying to be an influencer for God, this verse is totally misunderstood by him and probably by just about anyone who buys his shoes. You see, what people might hear Paul saying in these verses is that I can do anything I set my mind to if I believe in God.

It is just another prosperity gospel mantra. It means I can achieve any personal goal I have by faith. If I believe in God, I will get this job, I will win this game, I will ace this test. But this verse has little to do with personal achievement. It's actually about what Christ has already achieved.

What God is actually saying in Philippians 4:13 is that despite life throwing its worst circumstances at you, you can trust that Jesus Christ's life, death, and resurrection has supplied for you your greatest needs. In other words, if Steph Curry truly understood these words and truly believed them, it would mean that he could lose all his basketball games for the rest of his career, break his leg so badly that he could never play basketball again, lose all his wealth. Yet, because of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, he could be the most satisfied man on earth. Paul was able to learn contentment by resting on the only thing that matters, what Jesus has done for us. This is the all things He has in view here when He says, "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me."

He says, in all situations, I can deal with those things because Christ's work has given me hope. This is where Christian contentment comes from, knowing and believing with the deepest parts of your soul that no matter what happens, if you have Christ, you are the richest person in the world. Now, the tricky part of the Christian life is going to be not just trusting God in your good times, but to trust Him in the hard ones. Not to take that 10-cent gamble on His love because you know you've got a dollar in your pocket. The Christian life calls you to hold on to hope always that God will sustain you.

Meanwhile, you remember with great joy and contentment that your greatest needs have been met in Christ. This is the sole reason that Paul can pray his blessing over the Philippians because He knows it's true for them. He says, "My God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus." Is Paul a prophet that can say, well, Susan in the church in Philippi is gonna get her bike, Bob is gonna get work tomorrow and little Johnny is gonna pass his university course? That's not every need that Paul is talking about.

Every need is the one that is fulfilled in Christ. That is your need. So I want you to listen to what I'm saying this morning. The deepest contentment the human heart can ever experience, the deepest peace you can ever know is to believe the truth that you have been forgiven, that you have been washed clean, and that you have been adopted into God's family, and that you have received an eternal kingdom. You are a citizen in God's eternal everlasting kingdom of peace and it can never be taken away from you.

That is the source of your contentment. Thirdly and finally, this deep contentment in turn becomes action. And one of those actions is shown in generosity. And that generosity, Paul says, in turn receives a reward from God. Having talked about the blessing of being generous in both our giving and our receiving, and having expressed the contentment that someone can have in Jesus Christ, Paul says in verses 17 and 18, "I don't necessarily seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit."

"I have received full payment and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gift you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God." Two things are being said here. Firstly, that the Philippian Christians' gift was not so much a blessing for Paul as it was a credit and an honour to themselves. Now, the word used here for credit is a word that was used in the business world.

It can be translated as a dividend, a return on investment. This gift to Paul was not simply helping someone in need, and therefore good, although it was. The gift to Paul is also something that produced a spiritual dividend for the Philippians. It was an act that would be honoured in heaven. It's like the story of a man who got shipwrecked.

He washed up on a remote island and was greeted by the people of that island. First, the man was afraid that he would be killed, but instead of killing him, the people took him and placed him on a throne. They made him their king. Surprised by this amazing turn of events, he motioned to someone to explain to him what had happened. Someone was able to explain to him the concept that every year, one person was taken from the village, made king over the whole tribe for a whole year, but after twelve months, they would be taken to another remote island and left there as a sacrifice to their gods.

Inevitably, this remote island would take the life of that previous king because it was so uninhabitable. Well, the man thought to himself, this won't do. So for that next year, he commanded that certain farmers of the tribe go over to the island to start tilling the soil and planting vegetables. He sent builders to build some housing. And then eventually, he sent a few families to start living there. By the time his twelve months were up, he was taken to the island, but stepped into a little village that he had helped to create.

That's clever. This is something of what Paul is talking about here. The earthly investment the Philippians made to support the gospel worker, that gift was creating for them a reward on the day that they would step foot into God's established kingdom. Now, I don't want to suggest what this reward might be. We see it in Jesus, we saw it this morning in Matthew 6.

Jesus talks about the rewards that the Father will give us. That if you do so with pride and self-righteousness, you receive your reward, which is to be seen. That is your reward, Jesus says. But if you do it humbly and quietly, your Father sees you and He will reward you. I'm not gonna tell you what that reward is, I'm not sure myself.

I know that it's very unlikely that God will give you a diamond-encrusted watch or gold earrings because Revelation 21 says that the streets of the new Jerusalem are paved in gold. But I think the dividend, the credit is the celebration, the gratitude, the honour of dozens and dozens of people acknowledging that their salvation or their edification, their maturity in Christ is somehow contributed to by your work, your sacrifice, your love, your efforts. And that's not to say that God doesn't get the glory. After all, He is the one who draws His people to Himself, but He uses the means of people and of His church. The great joy and perhaps the great reward is that we may see people in heaven who have wound up there by your obedience in serving God.

And that is a reward that will pay dividends across all eternity. But then secondly, Paul says in verse 18 that these efforts, these gifts are sacrifices acceptable and pleasing to God, which means that apart from the reward, apart from that dividend, whatever that may be, these efforts are part of our worship as well. The things we just do as Christians because we love God, they are acts of praise. They are conscious decisions to honour God, and they become sacrifices that are pleasing to Him, which God receives gladly. If you're a Christian and your heart is as full with contentment as Paul's is, then God's the one who you want to make glad.

Because nothing we do will ever be enough to warrant the love and grace of God. That's what we realise. We will never be good enough to earn God's forgiveness, nor will we ever be able to do enough afterwards to pay back our debt. But we do have this. We have ways to thank Him.

We have ways to honour Him. We have ways to glorify His name to say, God, You are so magnificent for having done what You have done for me. And Paul says here that one of the ways we do that, to give something in response to the inexpressible gift He has given us, is to be generous in our work for the kingdom. Today, we are told that Christian prosperity doesn't come from desiring more stuff in our lives, but through the actions that give it away. Generosity creates joy in us and that joy is true prosperity.

It's found through the humble ability to both give and receive from our brothers and sisters. Finding true contentment in Christ leads us to a life where we are willing to give generously to the needs of fellow believers, to the mission of the church and to the wider work of the kingdom of God. And so I wanna tell you, it's the morning teas you make for us on Sunday mornings. It is the meals that you prepare for carols nights. It is the homes that you open for weekly Bible studies. It's every meal that you made for John and Taya.

It's a weekly offering of your hard-earned post-tax money to this church. It's the man-hours of pulling weeds, mowing lawns, moving mulch. These are all the things that increase to your credit and act as a fragrant sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.

So thank you for those gifts. Thank you for that generosity. They are noticed, they are appreciated and they will be rewarded in some way by our God in heaven. May we continue to strive to pursue a life of thankful generosity, to honour Him with our wealth, to honour Him with our talents, to honour Him with our life that He may receive the glory for all that He has done, which is why Paul can end with these words when reflecting on a life of generosity. Verse 20, "To our God and Father be the glory forever and ever."

Amen. Let's pray. Lord, if we can just pause long enough to feel the weight of glory that we have experienced and witnessed in the face of Christ, who has laid down His life for His sheep, who has exchanged the glory of the eternal Son for our sin, so that we might receive His righteousness, that we may become inheritors, co-heirs with Him of the riches of heaven. And Lord, if we can understand that we have been placed in the heavenlies, that we have received a place in Your throne room. Lord, what is our life?

What are our gifts, what is our wealth that we would hold it back? Lord, help us to be so challenged by that thought, to be so radically moved by that idea that we can entirely trust what You have given to us into Your service, so that we don't simply take 10-cent gambles upon You believing and putting our trust in a dollar that is in our pocket, self-won, self-generated so-called. They may understand, Lord, that everything we have is from You. Everything we have belongs to You. But Lord, that You, out of Your grace, offer us the joy of sharing those things in such a way that it will increase to our credit and that there may be a reward in some way, whether that is further joy, further contentment, a marvelling at Your power at work.

Right now, Lord, to experience that or whether that is entirely future, we pray, Lord, that we will have a desire, a hunger to receive those things as good things. We thank You, Lord, for the opportunities You are giving us and will give us to be generous. We pray, Lord, that we will see those things, that we will be wise about those things, that we will balance all the responsibilities and the acts of stewardship You also call us to and we pray, Lord, that in the midst of all of that, Your people will be blessed, Your church will be established, Your kingdom will be extended to Your glory, to Your honour through our lives. In Jesus' name, amen.